#throwbackthursday The Chat’o’matic

When gorillaz.com first launched in 2001, Gorillaz fans could geek out with one another on a chat platform called the “Chat’o’matic.” You could locate the “chat’o” in Noodle’s room, as referenced at 2:40 in the Kong Studios tour video from Phase one:

As MEL mentioned, most of the time spent on the chat’o was nonsense. But, it was nevertheless fun. You could customize your avatar to a be character such as those from Phoo Action or The 16’s.

Occasionally, 2D, Murdoc, Russel and Noodle would pop on the Gorillaz official message board or the chat’o to talk with their fans. You knew it was really them because they were the only ones with their faces as avatars.

(There’s actually a story of Mat Wakeham – a key member of Zombie Flesh Eaters – logging on to the chat’o as Murdoc, and spending hours talking a poor kid off the ledge.)

I recently came across my old Gorillaz files, and found something (that I think is) cool. 2D appeared one day and I have screenshots of the chat! See the pictures below: